“Having fulfilled the requirement by law… I therefore wish to declare Uhuru Kenyatta… as President-elect,” said Mr Chebukati.

The President, in a nationally broadcast speech, said he and his opponent were not enemies.

“We are all citizens of one republic,” he said. “As with any competition, there shall always be winners and there shall be losers.

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But we all belong to one great nation called Kenya.”

Kenyatta said he wanted to work with the opposition National Super Alliance (NASA).

“I extend a hand of partnership knowing fully well that this country needs all of us pulling together in order for us to succeed,” he said

President Kenyatta, 55, is a wealthy businessman and the son of Kenya’s first president.

Opposition leader Mr Odinga is a left-wing former political prisoner who also lost the 2013 vote to Kenyatta and took allegations of vote rigging to the country’s supreme court, which rejected his case.

The nation’s top elections official, Wafula Chebukati, said the vote was carried out in a “free, fair and credible manner.”